Database access software enables a software operator such as a database administrator or a database user to access vast amounts of content data. Specifically, such software enables the operator to view, manage, and modify some or all of the content data stored in large databases. To facilitate easy access to such data, database access software frequently provides an interface which displays data as grouped into one or more groups or sets of data which share one or more common characteristics. For example, database access software may display a plurality of selectable menu items to the operator which enable the operator to view only desired categories of data associated with the menu items.
Especially for large, complex databases, a menu system including a single tier of groups does not enable quick and easy access to the data. For example, organizing a large database into hundreds or thousands of groups or sets of data in a single tier, though helpful, can still present a cumbersome and unmanageable interface for an operator wishing to quickly access specific content data within the database.
Various software vendors have therefore developed more advanced menu systems to facilitate easier access to similar quantities of data. These menu systems are frequently designed with a hierarchical structure such that an operator is initially presented with a high-level grouping of a relatively small number of broad categories. By selecting one of the broad categories, such menu systems present the operator with a second level or tier of categories which is narrower than the high-level group of categories, wherein each of the categories of the second level or tier is a logical subset of the selected high-level category. The menu system enables the operator to select one of the more specific second level categories to further refine the content data which is displayed and modified.
In certain menu systems, some of the selectable categories or menu items are associated with content data which is displayed upon selection of that category or menu item. In these systems, the content data represents a potential destination, such as a database record into which data is entered, in which data is viewed or modified, or from which data is extracted. By navigating through the selectable categories or menu items of such menu systems, an operator may reach a desired destination and may manipulate the content data associated therewith as the operator sees fit. For example, the operator may serially select a top-level menu item and one or more lower-level menu items to arrive at desired content data.
Hierarchical or tiered menu systems can have tens or hundreds of hierarchical layers or tiers representing thousands or millions or sets of content data, particularly in data-intensive systems wherein the stored content data is measured in gigabytes or terabytes. Thus, in such systems, an operator may select tens or hundreds of sub-categories before finally reaching a menu item which is associated with the sought content data. If the operator needs to frequently switch between certain sets of content data to effectively utilize a large database (e.g., three different data viewing/entry screens), it can become cumbersome to repeatedly select a plurality of sub-categories to repeatedly access the same data (e.g., to switch between three different screens). In certain industries, such as the insurance industry, this problem is exacerbated by a frequent need of operators to repeatedly alternate between viewing data contained multiple tiers below different high-level menu options.